State Court Agrees Killer Should Die

July 23, 1991|by MARY GAGNIER, The Morning Call

The state Supreme Court has agreed that Arthur Faulkner should face two death penalties for killing two archaeologists in Lower Merion Township on Good Friday in 1988. Faulkner, 34, of Philadelphia was sentenced by a Montgomery County jury.

"The sooner they carry this (death penalty) order out, the better I will feel," Montgomery County District Attorney Michael D. Marino, who prosecuted the Faulkner case, said yesterday. "I honestly believe this guy should not be breathing the same air of the other people in this country."

Faulkner was a laborer for SJS Archaeological Services, owned by Glenn Sheehan and his then-pregnant wife, Anne Jensen, when he killed two women employed there. He also stabbed the co-owners.

In its decision to uphold the death sentences, the Supreme Court said Judge Samuel Salus was correct in refusing the defendant's attempt to introduce psychiatric testimony during the trial. The testimony would not have shown that Faulkner was legally insane at the time of the slayings, the court said.

Faulkner had raped, strangled and stabbed archaeologist Clarice Dorner at the SJS laboratory before encountering Jensen on the stairway. He then stabbed Jensen as she tried to warn archaeologist Annaliese Killoran.

But Faulkner caught up with Killoran outside in front of the building and stabbed her on the sidewalk. Sheehan thought he heard his wife's screams, ran out from their nearby residence, and found Killoran on the sidewalk. Faulkner then startled, grabbed and stabbed Sheehan. New York City police apprehended Faulkner nine days later in Killoran's vehicle.

In its decision, the state Supreme Court also denied defense attorney Robert Selig's argument that a conflict of interest existed when Walter T. Zdunowsky Jr., who had worked as an investigator for the defense, announced in August 1988 that he would begin working as a county detective that October. "There is no claim that Zdunowsky actually discussed appellant's case with anyone in the district attorney's office," the court said, "or engaged in any improper behavior."

The defense also argued that Faulkner was denied a fair trial because Salus allowed the jury to see photographs of the slain women. However, the Supreme Court noted, the judge had cautioned the jury that the photographs "were not meant to ... appeal to their passions, but rather were being introduced for explanatory purposes."